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Fisherman Trying To Recover From Hurricane Ike

Mark Schantz/SUNCOAST

Tarpon Springs-based commercial fishing captain Kris Geidel is trying to get his business back in order after a close encounter with Hurricane Ike.

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: October 10, 2008

Updated:

TARPON SPRINGS - Being a pack rat likely saved Kris Geidel's life. Now he's hoping to keep his fishing business from sinking.

During the second week in September, Geidel, 49, a veteran commercial captain, and his crew of four aboard the wooden vessel Pete's Dream were fishing for snapper southeast of the Cayman Islands as what became Hurricane Ike quickly formed.

He initially tried to outrun what at the time was still a tropical storm, Geidel said. His 63-foot, 65-ton vessel was loaded with more than 21,000 pounds of snapper.

Gulf Stream currents slowed him down and the tropical storm, turned hurricane, was faster and more massive then he thought.

"We just couldn't get ahead of it," he said.

Geidel had weathered many a topical cyclone at sea, so he knew his wooden boat was sturdy. Several months earlier he put $70,000 into remodeling Pete's Dream, he said.

His reluctance to throw away anything aided the crew's efforts to keep the fishing boat afloat. Several old bilge pumps that remained stowed aboard Pete's Dream operated long enough before burning out, one after another, to keep the engine room from flooding.

As the storm was brewing, the National Marine Fisheries Vessel Monitoring System, which tracks the position of fishing boats as part of the federal agency's enforcement of fishing and environmental laws, noticed Pete's Dream was about to be overtaken by the 145-mph winds and 45- to 50-foot waves of Hurricane Ike.

Marine Fisheries officials contacted the Coast Guard, but it was too late. Any rescue would have to wait until after the worst of the storm had passed.

Geidel's wife, Mari Ann, said her heart went into her stomach when the caller I.D. on her telephone displayed a call from the Coast Guard.

Having gone through many a storm as the spouse of a man who makes his living on the sea, Mari Ann Geidel was not one to imagine the worse when she didn't hear from Kris for an extended period of time.

She took extra comfort from the fact that Pete's Dream was made of wood and designed by a craftsman from Greece to withstand hurricane-lashed seas. If he were in a modern fiberglass craft he would have been doomed, Mari Ann believes.

Even so, she said, when the Coast Guard calls, it's probably not good news.

A Coast Guard official told her Kris and Pete's Dream were about 10 miles from Ike's eye. As a result, no rescue vessel could respond until the hurricanes winds dropped below 100 mph.

That is when she began to really worry - but not the couple's eldest son, Kris Jr.

He'll make it, the 17 year old said of his seafaring father. "They don't call him Capt. Kris for nothing."

She told the Coast Guard he was in a wooden boat and needed a pump to stay afloat.

That message and the fact that the Coast Guard was able to drop a pump six hours earlier than Coast Guard officials originally estimated probably saved his life, she said.

Coast Guard dispatchers told her what they learned during the long wait.

The crew battled the hurricane, which tossed the boat from wave to wave for days. Nights actually were better than days, because you could not see the waves coming, Geidel said.

One really big wave destroyed the boat's wheelhouse and starboard side. Fortunately, water from the broaching sea did not get into the hull or engine room.

"One more 50-foot wave like that and we would have been gone," Geidel said.

Just as the wind started to abate, a Coast Guard jet flew over and dropped a self-contained pump they needed to get back under way.

"They made several passes of the boat and then dropped it right in dead center," Geidel said.

The crew was able to get the boat back to port in Tarpon Springs under its own power.

Despite the harrowing experience, which is still costing him sleep at night, Geidel loves fishing and wants to head out on a trip as soon as possible.

Pete's Dream, however, sustained more than $40,000 in damage due to the storm. With no insurance to cover the cost of rebuilding his boat, Geidel plans to rely on the goodness of the community.

He opened a Pete's Dream rebuilding fund at Wachovia for anyone wishing to donate. He is also looking for people to help him rebuild his boat.

Geidel was just getting back on his feet after earlier financial problems when he had his close encounter with Ike. With his boat out of commission, the bills are mounting, he said.

Mark Schantz can be reached at 727-815-1075 or mschantz@suncoastnews.com.

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